A device of this type can be mounted in different areas of a motor vehicle and can also serve different purposes. For example, temperature sensors, which are installed at various points in the interior of the vehicle, can be used to control the vehicle's climate-control system. The sensors could also be of the distance-measuring type, which are installed in the area of the vehicle's bumpers. This particular application of the device will be considered in the following as a representative of all the other possible applications of such devices, but the invention is not to be considered restricted to this application.
A system for warning the vehicle's operator against an obstacle is referred to in engineering jargon as “park distance control”. It is used especially during the parking process and makes use of optical and/or acoustic signals to tell the operator how far the vehicle is from an obstacle. The vehicle driver can then stop his vehicle in time so that a collision with the obstacle is avoided.
Similar devices are already present in modern motor vehicles. The sensors used as distance-measuring devices are usually positioned in the vehicles' bumpers. Each sensor is connected by electrical conductors to the voltage source (the battery) of the vehicle and by a signal conductor to the vehicle's signaling device. The corresponding conductors are usually combined into so-called cable harnesses. The larger the number of sensors, the thicker the cable harness and the greater the complexity of the work required to install the sensors.